Mark of the Ninja PC Review

Klei Entertainment has done a great job moving away from their standard portfolio, like the side scrolling beat ’em up Shank and the Eets puzzle games, when they made Mark of the Ninja. I don’t know if I’m jumping the gun here but I would have to say that Mark of the Ninja if probably a must have for stealth action adventure fans out there.

In Mark of the Ninja you play as the unnamed champion of the Tetsuji clan. Shortly after you get your first tattoo that marks you as the champion, your clans hideout is attacked by a private security team owned by the games antagonist, Count Karajan. After rescuing Master Azai your mission is to strike back at Karajan to, insert ninja cliché, regain your honor. Thankfully you’ll have aid in your quest, you’ll be accompanied on your missions by Ora, who will give you tips and guidance. On a side note, Ora is also the one who wakes you up in the beginning of the game and alerts you to the attack on the Tetsuji.

The main aspect of Mark of the Ninja is stealth and stealth kills are where it’s at. You aren’t just able to run around with your sword out all willy nilly slicing up everything in your path. You’ll have to stick to the shadows, and execute your enemies in secret to gain the most points.With the array of play styles, techniques, and items you will be able to either kill your enemies or distract them and sneak past them. Not killing your enemies also has its advantages at the end of the mission with a special non lethal bonus and sometimes that bonus is more then you would get for killing all of your foes.

I also really liked the sandbox style of the missions. You can dissect your surrounds and attack from multiple angles instead of just one linear path.

One other thing that’s necessary to elaborate on are the tattoos you receive throughout the game. The tattoos are made from a desert flower which is poisonous, but if you use them as tattoo ink you get crazy powers. But with these powers come at a great cost. With each new tattoo you will slowly be driven into madness, and will eventually have to kill yourself before you get out of control.

I also found the controls to be very fluid. It was easy for me to transition from shadow to shadow and dispatch my foes quickly and quietly without alarming others.

All in all I don’t really don’t have anything bad to say about Mark of the Ninja. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it. It’s by far the funnest game I’ve reviewed thus far. With the addition of new game plus it adds a whole new level of difficultly, and replay value.